What is Social Work?
Social work is a profession that is primarily concerned with supporting and helping people in a variety of situations and settings. It is also about working in solidarity with socially excluded people and groups in meeting the challenges that their social exclusion creates. Social workers work in a wide range of settings and with different groups of people. Social workers work with individuals, families, groups and communities. Their work can span a wide variety of roles including counselling, group work, lobbying, advocacy and political activism. Social workers often have to network with other professions such as gardai, doctors, public health nurses, and schools, as well as service-user and advocacy networks. Ultimately, social work aims to support people to live more successfully within their local communities by helping them to find solutions to their problems.
Where do Social Workers Work?
Reflecting the diversity of the profession, social workers work in a wide variety of settings. These include, but are not limited to: hospitals, where social workers work with patients and their families to address issues such as housing and welfare entitlements, and grief and loss; in community projects, working with people to address issues of common concern; in the Probation and Welfare Service, where their role can include providing reports to the court and supporting offenders through counselling, advocacy, and referral to other support services; in family support, working with children and their families in different settings including family centres and child welfare and protection services; in mental health care settings, working with service-users and their families; in disability services, working to support the needs of disabled people; and in fostering and adoption, providing support to children in care. Social workers also work in local authority housing departments with local authority tenants and in work with Travellers. In recent years, social work has also become increasingly concerned with working in a variety of community organisations providing support to Ireland’s growing immigrant population.
